Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(mainly Aus./N.Z.) to drink, usu. to drunkenness.

1886		Sporting Times 3 Apr. 2/3: ‘I give you the straight tip, you you shikkuring momzir’.
1908		H. Lawson ‘The Blanky Papers’ in Roderick (1972) 785: You brood an’ brood an’ shicker, an’ go blanky well down to blanky hell.
1911		E. Dyson ‘On a Bender’ in Benno and Some of the Push 74: The Don was shoutin’-p’raps that’s how-but shickerin’ ain’t a thing Benno ’ad done afore.
1913		H. Lawson ‘Benno and his Old ’Uns’ in Roderick (1972) 805: Her Old ’Un ‘shickered’ till he got ‘mucked’ every pay day.
1914		M. Glass Abe And Mawruss 272: He don’t smoke and he don’t shikker.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 SHICKER — To drink.
1927		‘Syd. Swagman’ ‘Drunks’ in Wannan Folklore of Aus. Pub (1972) 84: Tough drunks, rough drunks, dirty drunks and fat, / Drunks that shicker with the flies and shicker on their pat.
1934		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 May 9s/8: The reasons that so many [...] turn into shickering sinners.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 39: He’d gamble his shirt off on any damn thing that’s got a leg to run on, but he doesn’t shicker.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 90: And if you try tellin’ me that ‘shicker’ isn’t a Bible word [...] take another look. It’s a Hebrew word meaning to grog-on.
1972		B. Wannan Folklore of the Aus. Pub 128: Shicker, To: to imbibe freely.